The Empire was divided to improve communications and military response against external threats. The Tetrarquía imposed by Diocletian managed that the Crisis of the Third Century came to an end. His sons Arcadius and Honorius ruled the Roman Empire of East and West after the death of his father.
However, control of both frontiers during the war was difficult because if the emperor was near the border in the east, it was very likely that an ambitious general would rebel in the West and vice versa. This opportunism of war, plagued many ruling emperors and paved the way to power for several future emperors.
By personally directing his troops, Alexander Severus turned to diplomacy and paid tribute in an attempt to pacify quickly the Germanic chiefs. According to Herodiano, this cost him the respect of his troops, who might have felt that they had to punish the tribes that were invading the territory of Rome.
The Romans had a difficult problem, indeed an insoluble problem to deal with: for centuries, powerful generals had used the backing of their armies to compete for the throne; This meant that any emperor who wanted to die in his bed, had to maintain a tight reign in these armies.
Octavian obtained the Roman provinces of the West: Italy (modern Italy), Gaul (modern France), Gaul Belgium (parts of modern Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg) and Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal). These lands also included Greek and Carthaginian colonies in coastal areas, although Celtic tribes such as Gauls and Celtiberians were culturally ...
Marco Antonio received the provinces of East: Achaea, Macedonia and Epirus (now Greece, Albania and the coast of Croatia), Bithynia, Ponto and Asia (now Turkey), Syria, Cyprus and Cyrenaica. These lands had previously been conquered by Alexander the Great and so much of the aristocracy was of Greek origin.
Marco Antonio Lépido for his part, received the minor province of Africa (the modern Tunisia) but Octavio took it quickly while adhering to Sicily (modern Sicily) to its dominions.
The last division of the roman empire arises from the death of Emperor Theodosius I. The Empire was divided to improve communications and the military response against external threats.
As the Roman Republic expanded, it reached a point where the central government based in Rome could not effectively govern the distant provinces. Communications and transportation were especially problematic given the vast expanse of the empire.
The situation of the Roman Empire was very serious in the year 235, when Emperor Alexander Severus was assassinated by his own troops.
In theory at least, the Empire was divided to improve communications and the military response to external threats.
Diocletian through the recognition of the fact that an emperor located in Rome could not effectively administer all the provinces and the wide borders with their external threats, tried to reduce the problem through the establishment of the tetraarchic system.
The two halves of the empire continued to prosper equally until the reign of Emperor Theodosius I from AD 379 to 395. It is here that internal and external forces strove to divide the two halves.
Theodosius I, was the last emperor of a united Roman Empire. He died in early 395, probably of dropsy or heart failure. On his deathbed, he divided the Roman Empire between his two sons Arcadius and Honorius.
Theodosius was often called the Great, mostly because of his good relationship towards the Church (similar as Constantine I ). In fact, he finished a reform that was launched in the time of Constantine, and he proclaimed Christianity the only official religion of the Empire, a decision of the First Council of Nicaea was only one true faith.
This ended the tradition of Delphic oracle or the Olympic Games. Very shortly before his death (395 AD) Theodosius stripped many temples of old religion in Rome, and statues of ancient idols he had thrown out on the streets.
September 25, 2016. Division of Roman Empire 395AD. After the death of Roman Emperor Valens, Theodosius I (379-395 AD) was elected as an Emperor of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Although he inherited a chaotic situation, he succeeded thanks to his talent and abilities, to bring an order to some extent in the very difficult condition ...